2019-20
October 25, 3:30 p.m. (HSS 117)
Gregory Strom, University of Pittsburgh
"Aesthetic Agency and Aesthetic Ethics"
Abstract: Venerable figures in the history of philosophy from Plato to Murdoch have asserted that in some crucial sense beauty is not just necessary for, but central to, an ethically well-lived life. An ethically well-lived life, according to this idea, is an aesthetically well-lived life, or something like that. In spite of its provenance, however, this thesis is largely neglected as a potential rival to deontology, consequentialism and virtue theory in contemporary debates about the foundations of ethics. Still, it should be possible to make the case for an aesthetic ethics presentable in a contemporary idiom. My goal is to make a contribution toward that project by providing a philosophically illuminating account of artistic activity on the basis of which it will become clearer why it would make sense to think that the special character of artistic activitythe activity, that is, of the artist qua artistis a good model for an ethically well-lived life.
November 15, 3:30 p.m. (HSS 117)
Arnon Cahen, University of Pittsburgh/Bar Ilan University
"Explaining the Aspectuality of Perception: A Nonconceptual Account of 'Seeing As'"
March 20, 3:30 p.m. (HSS 206)
Hanna Kim, Washington and Jefferson College
"The Content-Dependence of Imaginative Resistance"
Abstract: An observation of Hume's has received a lot of attention over the last decade and a half: Although we can standardly imagine the most implausible scenarios, we encounter resistance when imagining propositions at odds with established moral (or perhaps more generally evaluative) convictions. The literature is ripe with solutions' to this so-called Puzzle of Imaginative Resistance'. Few, however, question the plausibility of the empirical assumption at the heart of the puzzle. In this paper, we explore empirically whether the difficulty we witness in imagining certain propositions is indeed due to claim type (evaluative v. non-evaluative) or whether it is much rather driven by mundane features of content. Our findings suggest that claim type plays but a marginal role, and that there might hence not be much of a puzzle' to be solved.
April 3, 3:30 p.m. (HSS 117)
Jeff Engelhardt, Dickinson College
"The Nonideal Division of Linguistic Labor"
Abstract:Many philosophers and linguists think there's a division of linguistic labor: the labor' required to give many terms their meaning and/or referent is divided among us. For instance, the terms "quark," "libel," and "fruit" have exact meanings when my nephew uses them, even if he doesn't know those exact meaningsthat's how he can misuse them. How? Helike most of us--depends on physicists, legal experts, and botanists, respectively, to say which exact parts of the world each term refers to. For many terms, the linguistic labor' that gives a term its exact meaning is divided among the members of the language community.
In this discussion, I'll try to make the case for two points about the division of linguistic labor. First: according to the traditional understanding of the division of linguistic labor, it is a contingent social institution—who does linguistic labor for a given term at a given time and place is determined by social facts at that time and place. Second: our English language division of linguistic labor (a) has plausibly been shaped by structures of oppression and (b) systematically produces testimonial injustice.
2018-19
October 26, 3:30 p.m. (HSS 206)
Benjamin Schulz, University of Pittsburgh
"Acting in Light of a Reason"
September 28, 3:30 p.m. (HSS 206)
Danielle Wylie, Mississippi State University
"You Knew the Risks: A Puzzle for Moral Responsibility"
2017-18
April 20, 3:30 p.m. (HSS 206)
Hans Pedersen, IUP
"Is AI an Existential Threat to the Human Race?"
Abstract: The past several years have seen an increase in what I will call "AI alarmism"the idea that we are on the cusp of developing artificial intelligence that is so powerful that its emergence could potentially produce catastrophic consequences for the human race. There is, of course, a spectrum of how dire these consequences are predicted to be, but the direst predictions involve scenarios seen in science fiction movies like The Terminator and The Matrix, in which a highly advanced form of artificial intelligence sets out to destroy or enslave humanity. It is this most alarmist version of AI alarmism that I will be questioning here. My criticism of this direst form of alarmism will be loosely based on issues found in Martin Heidegger's work, though perhaps not in the traditional way that Heidegger has been used to cast doubt on the possibilities of AI. The aim of this paper will not be to freshen the Dreyfusian/Heideggerian critique against the possibility of developing AI that can perform certain tasks. Rather, the focus will be on the "motivation" that a sophisticated AI would have to perform certain actions, particularly, the destruction or enslavement of the human race. I will argue that when we think about the likely motivational structure of AI and compare it to the Heideggerian account of the human agency, there is little reason to think that a form of AI would intentionally try to wipe out humanity.
March 2, 3:30 p.m. (HSS 206)
Megan Altman, Hiram College
"An Ethics of Loneliness and Hope: Kierkegaard's Exile and Heidegger's Emigrant"
Abstract: Commentators on Heidegger's ontologization of Kierkegaard have tended to claim that Heidegger's reading of the ethico-religious dimensions of Kierkegaard's thought seems cold and compassionless.In this paper, I hope to show that Heidegger's concept of ethics,' properly understood as etymologically related to dwelling' and abode,' puts forth an ontology in which the pressing question is not about obligations we owe each other, but rather, it is a matter of finding local places for communal life in our fractured and individualistic political context. What is most striking here is that Heidegger's alternative view of ethics seems to offer an existential hope which, much like Kierkegaard's eschatological hope, enables us to experience the highest things (the transcendent) in the lowliest places (the hearth).
November 10, 3:30 p.m. (HSS 209)
Anthony Fernandez, Kent State University
"Metaphysics and Method in Feminist Phenomenology"
Abstract: Phenomenologists study the universal structure of human experience, answering questions such as, "How do emotions shape the meaning and value of my environment?" and "How do I distinguish living subjects from inanimate objects?" Some contemporary philosophersincluding feminist philosophershave argued that phenomenology's focus on the universal structure of experience bars it from saying anything about human particularity, such as racial identity and gender difference. Some feminist phenomenologists have, however, come to phenomenology's defense, proposing phenomenological approaches capable of investigating both human universality and particularity. In this paper, I consider one of the most promising approaches: Linda Fisher's "generic" approach to human experience. I suggest that this approach lends itself to two possible interpretations, which I'll call the "exemplar" and the "schematic" approaches. And I argue that the "schematic" approach provides the strongest foundation for phenomenological studies of race and gender.
October 20, 3:30 p.m. (HSS 209)
Mary MacLeod, IUP
"Kimberle Crenshaw and Catharine MacKinnon on Antiessentialist Deployments of Difference"
Abstract: In her landmark essay, "Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics" (1989), Kimberle Crenshaw argues that "Black women [are] harmed in court decisions that conditioned their recovery on their sameness to Black men or to white women, as well as by decisions that saw them as too different to represent those who were routinely permitted to represent them namely, Black men and white women" ("Close Encounters of Three Kinds: On Teaching Dominance Feminism and Intersectionality" 156 (2010)). Catharine MacKinnon's critique of sex discrimination doctrine, fully articulated in "Reflections on Sex Equality under Law" (1991), similarly problematizes a sameness/difference approach to thinking about civil equality. Crenshaw has acknowledged the congruence of their critiques in print, but MacKinnon remains multiply derided as essentialist and marginalizing. After exploring the congruence in their critiques, this paper assesses MacKinnon's incendiary reply to antiessentialist critics, in "From Practice to Theory, Or What Is a White Woman Anyway" (1991).
2016-17
March 24, 3:30 p.m. (HSS 224)
John Ramsey, IUP
"Should the First Amendment Protect Hate Speech?"
Abstract: After discussing three widespread theories about the purpose of free speechas a marketplace of ideas, as facilitating democratic self-government, and as essential for developing individual autonomyI explore how some hate speech oppresses its targets and argue that, according to each of these theories, oppressive speech does not merit First Amendment protection.
February 24, 3:30 p.m. (HSS 224)
Eric Rubenstein, IUP
"Trump, Alternative Facts, and Objectivity in Journalism"
Abstract: This presentation will focus on the idea of objectivity in journalism and the questions that have been raised about the degree to which the press is objective and the extent to which pure objectivity is even possible.
October 21, 3:30 p.m. (HSS 206)
Hans Pedersen, IUP
"Guns and Freedom"
Abstract: This paper is an attempt to develop a charitable understanding of the importance of gun ownership. Particularly, I am going to focus on the oft-mentioned connection between guns and freedom. Supporters of gun rights frequently claim that an important reason to own guns and to keep access to guns fairly open is that guns protect and enhance freedom. Recently, Firmin DeBrabander has explored this connection between guns and freedom from a philosophical perspective in his Do Guns Make Us Free? There is much to admire about DeBrabander's work. However, DeBrabander fails to provide any clear, precise definition of freedom, and I think he is overly dismissive of the possible contributions of guns to a certain sort of freedom. Here, I will suggest that we think of political freedom along the lines of Phillip Pettit's concept of freedom as non-domination. When we start with this definition of freedom, we will see that there are legitimate ways in which guns can contribute to freedom. This is not to say that I will argue for extremely lax gun regulation. Instead, I think that once we acknowledge and clarify the legitimate role that guns can play in enhancing freedom, we will be better situated to come up with philosophically principled limits on gun ownership.
2015-16
November 13, 3:30 p.m. (McElhaney 101)
Mathew Snow, University of Pittsburgh
"Famine, Affluence, and Bourgeois Morality"
Abstract: Peter Singer and proponents of a growing social movement he has inspired ("Effective Altruism") argue that affluent individuals ought to give significant portions of their income to cost-effective charities that benefit those living in extreme poverty. As innocuous - or even salubrious - as this might appear in the abstract, their actual arguments belie a bourgeois morality so caught up in individual economic choices that it promises an all-too-easy solution to the ills of global poverty. Poverty and its ghastly consequences are treated as natural maladies afflicting an unlucky lot with no social cause aside, perhaps, from isolated bouts of unchecked greed and corruption. Affluence is treated similarly as individuals' more or less just deserts naturally apportioned by the impartial, free market. Such shibboleths undermine what might otherwise be a welcome movement and perniciously obscure two related points: (1) the moral values Effective Altruists endorse constitute an important ground for critiquing capitalism as such and (2) those values can find expression in capitalist society only in adulterated ways that cut against their adequate realization.
February 5, 3:30 p.m. (HSS 206)
Maria Balcells, Bucknell University
"The Veridical Experience of Temporal Passage in the Block Universe"
Abstract: There are many elements of our experience that are thought to be, or at least contribute to, the experience of temporal passage or flow. These elements include the feeling of moving into the future and away from the past, our inability to control such movement, and the dynamic character of this progression. These elements together have contributed to the view that time flows or passes. Most who take these elements of experience to be indicative of some property of time have criticized the four-dimensional block universe theory of space and time, in which all moments exist equally and eternally. This criticism is largely due to the block universe theory's hostility towards an additional mechanism, such as a moving now, and thus the theory's apparent inability to explain the experiences of temporal flow. The tension between the experience of temporal flow and the block universe seems to leave one with the option of either abandoning the block universe in favor of a metaphysics that can accommodate our experience, or maintaining the block universe theory, but holding that our experience of temporal flow is illusory. I hold that both of these options are untenable. Instead, I argue that the dynamic experiences that lend themselves to the view that time flows can be accounted for within the block universe theory without any additional mechanism. In order to argue this point, I attempt to show that the general character of our temporal experience may be structurally dissimilar to the temporal structure of reality and yet still veridical. While the belief that veridical experiences must be structurally identical to the properties of the external world has been abandoned in the realm of color, sound, etc., this belief still has its grips on how we think about time.
March 21, 5:00 p.m. (HSS 126)
Rebecca Whisnant, University of Dayton (Co-sponsored with Women's and Gender Studies)
"From Jekyll to Hyde: The Grooming of Male Pornography Consumers"
Abstract: Given the hostile and aggressive content of much contemporary mainstream pornography, the average male consumer, in order to continue enjoying such pornography, must silence any ethical qualms he may have about its content and production. He must, in effect, be groomed to accept sexual dominance and sadism against women. This grooming process is a cooperative effort involving both the porn industry and the individual consumer. This presentation outlines some of the main ways in which male consumers come to accept and enjoy rougher and more openly sadistic materialsbecoming, in the process, both abusers and abused, consumers and consumed.
April 15, 3:30 p.m. (HSS 215)
James Sias, Dickinson College
"Evil People"
Abstract: For almost a half-century, and fueled especially in recent years by an increasing presence of the term 'evil' in public moral discourse, a growing number of philosophers have become interested in the concept of moral evil. Is there such a concept, and if so, to what does it apply? What, for instance, would make an action count as evil, as opposed to just very wrong (or very, very wrong)? In this talk, I discuss a curious asymmetry in people's intuitions about evil namely, the fact that people are apparently more willing to allow that there are evil actions than they are to allow that there are evil people. After addressing two fairly common sources of skepticism about evil personhood, I then describe and critique a few of the more common philosophical theories of evil personhood. Finally, I suggest my own theory of evil personhood, which draws much of its inspiration from the work of Hannah Arendt who, it is perhaps worth noting, is widely regarded as the first twentieth century moral philosopher to take seriously the concept of moral evil.
2013-14
April 11, 3:00 p.m. (Eberly 121)
Danielle Wylie, University of Illinois at Chicago
"Reasoning and Rationalism in Moral Psychology"
Abstract: In moral psychology, "Psychological Rationalism" is the view that we form moral judgments primarily through a process of reasoning. This view has been relatively unpopular lately, largely due to two recent objections from Jonathan Haidt and Shaun Nichols. Haidt has claimed provide evidence against such a view by showing that people succumb to "moral dumbfounding," a phenomenon in which people cannot adequately provide their reasoning after forming a moral judgment. Nichols argues that the psychology of psychopaths provides evidence against the view, as psychopaths reason well but are unable to form moral judgments. In this talk, I argue that these objections depend on problematic assumptions about reasoning and the commitments of Psychological Rationalism and that Psychological Rationalism can survive both objections after these assumptions are corrected.
March 28, 3:00 p.m. (Eberly 121)
Wesley Cray, Grand Valley State University
"An Ontology of Ideas"
Abstract: Philosophers often talk about and engage with ideas. Scientists, artists, and historians do, too. So does practically everyone else. But what is an idea? In this talk, I first develop and motivate an ontology of ideas that satisfies various folk platitudes associated with the idea of idea, and does so within an ontologically parsimonious framework. I then discuss some nuances of the account, focusing particularly on the individuation and survival conditions of ideas. In the final section, I show how the account developed herein can be applied to give an account of the ontology of musical works, and of so-called "works for performance" in general. (This talk is based on collaborative work with Timothy Schroeder.)
October 24, 5:00-6:30 p.m. (Eberly 121)
Brian Besong, IUP
"Being Appropriately Disgusted"
Abstract: Recent psychological research suggests that feelings of disgust play interesting roles in the formation of moral beliefs and in moral motivation. Yet, given the evolutionary history of disgust, it is legitimate to wonder whether these roles are justified. In this talk, I'll sketch a positive account that accords disgust some appropriate role to play in ethics. In order to motivate my position, I'll first consider and then reject Dan Kelly's recent philosophical work on disgust, arguing that the positions he takes against the propriety of disgust's role in ethics are problematic and should be abandoned in favor of the more moderate position I lay out.
2012-13
May 3, 3:30 p.m. (McElhaney 101)
Preston Stovall, University of Pittsburgh
"The Lamp of Reason and the Mirror of Nature"
Abstract: In Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature, Richard Rorty argues that analytic philosophy inherited a program founded on the thought that the mind "mirrors" reality, and he contends that this program is bankrupt. In this talk I show that C.S. Peirce and Wilfrid Sellars were engaged in the sort of project for which "mirroring" talk is apt, and I argue that their work affords a productive way of countering certain of Rorty's views.
September 14, 3:30 p.m. (Eberly Boardroom)
Jonathan Surovell, University of Pittsburgh
"Carnap's Critique of Ontology"
Abstract: Carnap's conception of linguistic frameworks, and his associated distinction between internal and external questions, is supposed to give rise to a view on which philosophers' ontological question"Are there properties?", e.g.are pseudo-questions that are somehow confused or discontinuous with science. But what is the confusion that Carnap sees in ontology? According to the received view, Carnap rejects "external" existence questions because they are posed outside of any language for science, and for this reason lack cognitive meaning. I argue that, contrary to the received view, the rejection of external questions is not sufficient for Carnap's critique of ontology. I then offer an alternative interpretation. I argue that Carnap's critique of ontology involves a rejection of arguments that move from statements of existence to prohibitions against language forms (such as second-order variables). Carnap, I claim, rejects arguments of this form regardless whether the existential claim occurring as premise is internal or external. I then propose what I call Carnap's "pragmatism" as an account of what is wrong with the problematic arguments. Carnap's pragmatism holds that, in science, languages are to be used as instruments to facilitate inferential moves to and from observation reports. The incorrectness of the language's existential theorems need not reduce its effectiveness as an instrument for manipulating observation reports in this way. This is why, given Carnap's pragmatism, we cannot argue from an existential statement to the prohibition of a language.
2011-12
April 20, 3:30 p.m. (Eberly, 411)
Michael Ivins, IUP
"Socratic (im)Piety: Philosophy as a Way of Life"
Philosophy's first tragedy was the conviction and execution of Socrates by the citizens of Athens. Plato famously recounts the trial and defense in his dialogue, Apology of Socrates. But that defense is deeply ambiguous. Though Socrates is charged with impiety by not believing in the gods and for corrupting the youth, he never explicitly rebuts the former charge or even seeks to establish that he's not an atheist. Rather, he aims to prove his own piety by appealing to the existence of his personal daimon ("divine voice") and to a certain prophecy of the Delphic Oracle of Apollo who is to have said: "no one is wiser than Socrates." These accounts serve as evidence that the activity of questioning and interrogating politicians (and anyone in the city who naively considers themselves wise) is sanctioned by divine command of a god whom the city officially recognizes.
Socrates thus implicitly accuses the Athenians themselves of wishing to interfere with his divine mission. Athens therefore, ironically, demonstrates its own impiety by depriving its youth of the genuine improvement which only philosophy can provide, namely an education in true justice. Socrates' attempt to vindicate his own way of living has the further important consequence of illustrating an unavoidable tension between how philosophy and society understand piety.
November 11, 3:30 p.m. (McElhaney, 101)
Vanessa Wills, University of Pittsburgh
"Freedom and Morality in the Thought of Karl Marx"
Abstract: Marx speaks, especially in Capital, of the capitalist as "capital personified and endowed with consciousness and a will," a person who acts in a manner that is to a great extent determined by economic laws that guide the movement of the capital she possesses. He also speaks, in Capital and elsewhere, of the actions of the proletariat understood in terms of what it is as a class and what, by virtue of that nature, it will be compelled to do. Numerous authors have taken this strand in Marx's thought to indicate that he thinks human actions are one-sidedly determined by economic laws that operate beyond their control. Indeed, it has become something like conventional wisdom that Marx subscribes to a crude economic determinism that would make human freedom unintelligible, and thereby rule out or at least render incoherent and unintelligible any genuinely moral content in his later work. I argue that this is incorrect. While he analyzes the ways in which capitalism limits human action, Marx also recognizes that human beings under capitalism have a range of freedom within which they act, and which can be expanded through that action. It is precisely this historically limited yet growing capacity of human beings to intervene consciously into their historical situation that forms a key aspect of his moral philosophy. While economic factors, on Marx's view, play an important role in determining human history, it would be wrong to construe this observation as one that rules out human freedom.
October 21, 3:30 p.m. (Eberly, 411)
Brett Caloia, University of Pittsburgh
"Educating the Guardians: Using Plato's Republic as a Model for Capturing the Value of Wilderness"
Abstract: One of the more radical views to emerge from the study of Environmental Ethics is the claim that come kinds of value are not anthropocentric. It is quite common to see this claim asserted as a justification for protecting particularly remote or barren pieces of wilderness. These places are said to have a kind of intrinsic value that is particularly resistant to being recognized by human beings. Here, our normal methods of discovering value seem inadequate to the task of recognizing these values. However, this is not to say that there is no way for a human being to become aware of their existence. It is sometimes claimed that only a conversion experience can put one in contact with these forms of intrinsic value. But this raises a question. Assuming that these forms of intrinsic value exist, what political system is best able to protect them? I will argue that theories which ground political authority in a social contract risk being unable to account for these intrinsic values in the right way. In addition to this problem, democratic systems are prone to develop self-defeating strategies in attempting to protect these values. I then go on to argue that the form of government presented in Republic contains the elements necessary to properly treat this form of value. I conclude that a form of political authority grounded in expertise, rather than consent, represents the most promising method of accounting for, and ultimately protecting, the intrinsic value of these spaces.
2010-11
March 18, 3:30-5:30 p.m. (Location: Eberly Boardroom)
Matthew Talbert, West Virginia University
"Unwitting Wrongdoers"
Abstract: The discussion is concerned with the degree to which a wrongdoer may be morally responsible, in the sense of being open to moral blame, for an action when she was unaware of the moral status of her behavior. I will argue that while ignorance of the consequences of one's behavior often does undermine blameworthiness, mere normative ignorance typically does not. So, for example, while I may not be blameworthy for having unjustifiably injured you if I was unaware that my action would have that result, I would be blameworthy if I was simply unaware that unjustifiably injuring you is impermissible. First, I develop this claim in the context of rebutting a skeptical challenge to moral responsibility based on the supposition that normative ignorance excuses wrongdoers. Second, I consider several different examples of unwitting wrongdoing and formulate an account of the knowledge condition that applies to blameworthiness.
February 18, 3:30-5:30 p.m. (Location: Eberly Boardroom)
Patrick Miller, Duquesne University
"Heraclitus's Crosswise Logic"
Abstract: Divinity was the destination of many Greek philosophers. Their route: pure reason. Thinking consistently, and thus of the eternal, they understood the divine to be likewise. Indeed, they understood god to be identical with their authentic self. Heraclitus also saw an identity between god and self, but he understood both very differently. Starting from his meditation on the temporal cosmos, this talk shows him challenging consistency, providing instead a logic of "chiasmus." This impure reason proves to be his becoming god, as well as his own route to it.
October 29, 3:30-5:30 p.m. (Location: Eberly Boardroom)
Jesse Steinberg, University of Pittsburgh (Bradford)
"Ought, Can, and Appraisability"
Abstract: A number of philosophers are rather sanguine about the truth of the principle that "ought" implies "can." Many philosophers hold that an agent cannot be morally obligated to do something that she is unable to do. The speaker offers reasons for denying this principle, and for thinking that this popular approach to the relationship between obligation and ability is mistaken.
2009-10
April 16, 3:00-5:00 p.m. (Location: Eberly Boardroom)
John Christman, Penn State University
"Freedom and the Shadow of Slavery: Autonomy, Recognition, and Social Dislocation"
Abstract: In numerous philosophical accounts of what it means to be a free person, theorists have insisted that standing in certain social relations are required, specifically ones involving recognition and non-domination. Millions of people around the globe, however, live in places and under conditions where the terms of such recognition is up for grabs, since the language of their own self-conception differs, often radically, from the language and culture of their surroundings. In this paper, I argue that in cases where people find themselves completely dislocated from the social and cultural homes that had provided them with the language in which to formulate and express their values, it is clear that social recognition may be causally but not conceptually required for agency to be (re-)established. This is shown by noting that often victims of human trafficking or smuggling find themselves in foreign settings where it is quite up for grabs where and how they will attempt to reconstruct a life narrative which they can generally embrace. Therefore, seeing social recognition as conceptually required for autonomous agency or freedom would ignore the variability in the ways that such recognition must be expressed.
February 19, 3:00-5:00 p.m. (Location: Eberly Boardroom)
Christian Becker, Penn State University
"Sustainability Ethics"
Abstract: The paper aims to develop sustainability ethics as a new field of applied ethics and, with this, to provide a substantial input to the analysis and solution of the issue of sustainability. I argue that the issue of sustainability has an inherent ethical dimension, and demonstrate that the ethical issue is a rather complex and new one which requires a new type of sustainability ethics to adequately approach it. The ethical dimension is grounded in a specific relational meaning of the modern concept of sustainability, which refers to fundamental relationships of the human being: its relation to other contemporaries, future generations, and nature. I analyze these sustainability relations in detail, and argue that an encompassing sustainability ethics must be able to simultaneously address all three relations in an integrated way. However, the main established ethical approaches of Utilitarianism and Deontology are not appropriate to fully capture all the specifics of these relationships due to two reasons: First, they have been mainly developed for addressing the relationship between contemporaries. They are not originally designed for an analysis of the ethical aspects of the relationship with future generations or with nature. Their application to these relationships raises several problems. Second, the ethical dimension of sustainability has a fundamental structural aspect, as social and global structures play a crucial role for the constitution and actualization of the sustainability relations. Sustainability ethics, therefore, is not just about fundamental relationships, but is also about an adequate design of institutions and structures which allows an ideal realization of the sustainability relations.
I develop a conception of sustainability ethics which refers to both: the meaning of individual morality and structural aspects. My analysis of the role of individual morality is inspired by virtue ethics and ethics of care. I discuss the self-identity and individual morality of the individual person as a relational and dependent being existing within the sustainability relations, and develop the concept of a sustainable person. The characteristics of the sustainable person are (1) a relational self-identity as a temporal, interdependent, culturally, and naturally contingent being placed in the context of the sustainability relations; (2) relational competences of attentiveness and receptiveness; (3) a set of specific relational virtues, such as respect and care; and (4) an encompassing understanding of the human being as an emotional, rational, communicative and creative being.
For discussing the structural aspects, I introduce the concept of meta-structures. Meta-structures are a composition of basic assumptions, basic evaluations, driving forces, and institutionalizations. Crucial examples are science, technology, and the economy, which are at the center of my analysis. Meta-structures influence our self-identity and set us automatically into specific relationships with other humans, future generations, and nature. Based on a detailed analysis of the elements and dynamics of the meta-structures, I provide an ethical critique of them. The essence of my critique is that specific characteristics of the existing meta-structures impede the development of a self-identity as sustainable person, as well as the development of its sustainability relations. Thus, I argue that the meta-structures have to be redesigned in regard to sustainability, and provide some general guidelines for this structural change.
I conclude with some remarks about the development of applied ethics, and the role of philosophy in analyzing crucial issues of society and humankind.
January 29, 3:00-5:00 p.m. (Location: Eberly Boardroom)
Jennifer Bates, Duquesne University
"Hegel and Kierkegaard on the Generation of Anxiety"
Abstract: According to Hegel, we experience an "urge to overcome contradiction" (Philosophy of Mind and Aesthetics). This urge propels us to develop more complex forms of cognition. In its earliest cognitive phase, the urge is an experience of wonder. But wonder is insufficient for philosophy: wonder must develop into knowledge. I discuss this in the light of Hegel's claim that "The original disease of the animal, and the inborn germ of death, is its being inadequate to universality" ( Philosophy of Nature). I then contrast this urge and germ of death with Kierkegaard's notion of anxiety (in Concept of Anxiety). In that work, Virgilius Haufniensis (Kierkegaard's pseudonym) discusses the psychology of anxiety in religious terms as the "presupposition of hereditary sin." But I engage that text in existentialist terms. I focus on Haufniensis' investigation of anxiety as the presupposition for conceptual and ontological (as well as human phylogenetic) generation and on his claim that anxiety is a response to "Nothing." In both Hegel and Kierkegaard, these issues are finally about the nature of human, embodied time.